"We will call on the federal government to investigate this incident as a possible hate crime," Sharpton stated.
Last week, 16-year-old African American Dayshen McKenzie, who died of an asthma attack after allegedly fleeing a group of mostly white men yelling racist remarks at him, according to local media.
An eyewitness told the New York Daily News that one of the men yelled a derogatory racial epithet at McKenzie while screaming he was going to shoot him.
"The Staten Island District Attorney’s [DA] office [under the former prosecutor] showed questionable investigative skills in the Eric Garner case. We cannot in confidence rely on the DA’s office to pursue this matter to the degree the community feels will bring justice to the family of Dayshen McKenzie," Sharpton claimed.
Garner, who is African American, died in 2014 as a result of New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, applying a chokehold on him. A Grand Jury did not indict Pantaleo for the killing of Garner, despite the release of a video that captured the incident in its entirety.
The United States has seen waves of mass protests over the past two years against police brutality and racial profiling, prompted by numerous killings of unarmed individuals.
